It would be far too cruel for Keegan Bradley’s relationship with the Ryder Cup to end inside the media room at Bethpage, attempting to explain the reasons for Team USA becoming the first home side to lose the event since 2012.
Keegan Bradley has had an unbelievably turbulent connection with golf’s greatest event.
His brilliance over the first two days at Medinah in 2012 was overshadowed by Europe’s historic fightback. Tom Watson was more than willing to tell Bradley what he thought of his performance two years later at Gleneagles.
And of course, his omission ahead of 2023’s event in Rome provided a moment which not only made Full Swing, but only seemingly led to the 2011 PGA Championship winner being made captain for 2025.
It was the most dramatic of apologies. Unfortunately, it proved to be a hospital pass to Bradley from the PGA of America.
Bradley certainly played well enough to make the team. He won the Travelers Championship and flirted with winning the Tour Championship.
In hindsight, it would be fascinating to know what he would have done had he triumphed at East Lake.
Keegan Bradley comments on the decision to not pick himself for the Ryder Cup at Bethpage
Ultimately, he left himself out of the team for Bethpage. Sadly for the 39-year-old, his wait for any sort of Ryder Cup victory continues.
Bradley has been backed to captain the team again in 2027. There is hope that he would have learned enough to make him the right man to become the first American captain to leave Europe with the trophy since Tom Watson in 1993.
But Bradley’s comments – during a virtual press conference ahead of The Skins Game, being shown live on Amazon Prime on November 28th – about whether he regrets not playing in September surely clear up whether he is eyeing the captaincy again for Adare Manor.
“Yeah, when I think back at the Ryder Cup throughout my life, it’s a strange feeling because it’s an event that I love, but there’s been such heartbreak involved with every single one of them,” he said.
“And for me, I’ve spoken to Xander and all the boys about this, I’m forever going to have that hole inside of me of not winning as a captain. And it’s always going to be in the back of my mind and is what a strange thing is.
“This was never on my radar to be Ryder Cup captain, so this is a new feeling for me. But first and foremost, I’m a player and when I decided not to play, that was for what I thought was for the betterment of the team. And when I got there that week, early in the week, I was thinking how badly I wanted to play.
“But then as the week went on, I realized how impossible that would’ve been just with the long hours and the stress and the moving around. And so for me, I have to revert back, switch back to thinking of myself as a player. I would love to play in another Ryder Cup. I’ll be 41 on the next one, so who knows? But I’ll give it certainly my hardest and I hope to be a part of many Ryder Cups to come.”
Keegan Bradley appears to have taken the same stance as Justin Rose ahead of the 2027 Ryder Cup
Obviously, Bradley has not completely shut the door on anything. But given that Justin Rose has reportedly – according to The Telegraph – ruled himself out of captaining Europe in Ireland in the hope of making the team as a player, it seems fair to say that Bradley is looking to head down a similar path.
Of course, if the captain was announced the week before the event, Bradley would still be able to put himself in the fold. However, he will surely have no intention of committing to the role more than a year before the opening tee shot is hit.
If anything, an away Ryder Cup is likely to be even more demanding. Speaking in the same press conference, Shane Lowry suggested that Bradley made the right decision with his six picks.
“Do I think Keegan was one of the best 12 American golfers this year on tour? Yeah, probably. But are you able to be a playing captain at the Ryder Cup? Keegan answered the question there. I don’t think he can be,” he said.
“I think the captain has to do so much that it would’ve been an extra near impossible job for him to do.
“So yeah, that’s my view on the whole thing. I don’t think he can do it, but I don’t know, someone might do it in the future, but you never know.”
It was also notable that Rory McIlroy insisted that he could not be a playing captain. Perhaps it was mind games directed at his Boston Common teammate.
But McIlroy was right. And if Bradley believes that he has any chance of making the team as a player in 2027, he simply cannot consider the captaincy.
Bradley still has time to turn his Ryder Cup story of tragedy into a tale of redemption and triumph. But his comments suggest that he is ready to leave 2027’s captaincy for someone else.
*The Capital One Skins Game” coverage begins Friday, November 28 at 9:00 AM ET / 6:00 AM PT on Prime Video, with no subscription or Prime membership required.
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